Re: “Confession of a member of the QPIRG board” | Commentary | January 27

In Sebastian Ronderos-Morgan’s “Confession of a Member of the QPIRG board,” he “confesses” that QPIRG and Tadamon! only seek Hezbollah’s removal from Canada’s list of terrorist organizations because the terror list “is both diplomatically unhelpful and the source of racial profiling in Canada.” It is hard to take this claim seriously. Surely Ronderos-Morgan and Tadamon! know that being a member of Canada’s terrorist list has real-world implications, including preventing Hezbollah from raising money in Canada, and preventing Canadian banks and businesses from working with Hezbollah. Considering Hezbollah uses its funds to orchestrate terrorist attacks from Argentina (85 killed in Hezbollah’s 1994 bombing) to Israel and Lebanon (hundreds of Israeli, Lebanese, and Palestinian men, women, and children killed since Hezbollah’s founding) it is difficult to understand why Tadamon! and Ronderos-Morgan would take issue with Hezbollah’s placement on this list.

Furthermore, if campaigning for Hezbollah’s removal from Canada’s terrorist list means supporting Hezbollah’s right to raise funds in Canada, and operate in Canada in pursuit of violence, isn’t Tadamon!’s (and by inference QPIRG’s) campaign for Hezbollah’s removal from a terrorist watch list not in fact indirectly supporting Hezbollah’s goals and aims, which would include being able to raise money in Canada as they did before being placed on the Canada’s terrorist watch list?

Spencer Burger

U3 Joint Honours History and Political Science

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